It's about quality work, not social media

Social media was once thought to be a fad by many. It's now accepted and is here to stay. Marketers and advertisers are now now incorporating it into all of their marketing plans.

In the 90's, during the dotcom boom most people didn't worry about internet marketing as they were saying things like:

'"Most customers aren't on the internet."
"There's no proven return on investment.'
"It's for the younger generation."
'We are already successful using print advertising."'
Source: Sociable!: How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down

Sometimes I do feel like Social Media is like a bag of rice being thrown out of a back of truck to a horde of healthy people made to believe they are going to starve without it. It's chaotic and madness for some.

Until the web can fix my car, mow my grass, or do the plumbing, service industries aren't going to hurt from lacking an intentional social media strategy. They leverage word-of-mouth, whether it is online or not. Those who figure it out with social media will do well, but those who don't will also do well if they're good at what they do. Why? Because those they serve will talk about them both online and offline - strategy or no strategy.

Social Media can be fool's gold, if you neglect to do quality work in the first place.  Some would argue that you can't survive without Social Media today and that you have to get with the times. For most businesses, I tend to agree. However, I can think of quite a few businesses that are still resisting even the dotcom boom and they are doing better than ever.

It doesn't hurt to have Social Media as a tactic (in fact it helps), but don't let it control your business or your product.